Oculus Rift

Topic:

The Oculus Rift headset

The Oculus Rift is an upcoming virtual reality headset designed for a new revolutionary style of 3d gaming. Currently, only the developer version is available, but the consumer version is expected for release in 2014-2015. The Oculus Rift is compatible with Windows, Linux, OSX, and Android.

Description:

Oculus Rift is a virtual reality (VR) headset that allows its users to "step inside" their favorite video games like never before. This is the latest tech industry venture into the world of virtual reality. Earlier attempts at creating a head mounted, virtual reality device have failed going back all the way to the mid 90's. The company, Oculus VR, makers of the Oculus Rift, hope that they can breakthrough this trend with a device that is specifically geared toward gamers. As one review put it, the Oculus Rift was created "by gamers for gamers." Oculus VR may be on to something
as their product has created quite a buzz in the gaming world. In the US, Oculus VR has raised over 91 million dollars, with 2.4 million derived from
private donations via the crowdfunding website Kickstarter.

Team Fortress 2 being played on the Oculus Rift

The goal of the Oculus Rift is to create a 3D environment for the gamer that delivers a truly believable immersion into the game. Other virtual reality devices on the market today either lack the technical chops to deliver the kind of immersion that gamers crave or cost tens of thousands of dollars and are reserved for scientific and military applications. If the developers are successful, the Oculus Rift will deliver a realistic 3D gaming experience for only 300 dollars. This price point is achieved through the use of existing technologies that are strategically integrated into a console that consists only of a display component (the headset), an external controller for navigation, and a connection to a processor that runs the program. It is too early to know whether Oculus VR will brake the trend of failed Virtual Reality consoles but the technology, price, and interest give this product huge potential going forward.

Applications:

The frontal view of the Oculus Rift provides an 110 degree field of vision.

Virtual Reality:

The Oculus Rift immerses the user into an interactive environment. It is said to be extremely realistic, like one can "reach out and touch [the environment]." The applications of the virtual reality element can really envelope a person's senses, bringing them into a seemingly whole, new world. The use of this, while
mainly focused on the video gaming industry, could also be used for advanced 3D modeling, in-depth movie experiences, and possibly even educational purposes.
The frontal view of the Oculus Rift provides an 110 degree field of vision for the user, with added side to side head movement the view changes and a different part of the reality is seen, providing a truly unique experience.
NASA has already experimented with the Rift and have used it to map and walk on Mars' surface as well as the International space Station, and have simulated scenarios using the virtual reality technology. Compatibility with other up-coming devices, such as the Virtuix Omni, creates another application for the Oculus Rift. With a high initial investment, the backers of the virtual reality technology have already foreseen a great future for the device, and have given an option for developers to work on the device and pursue their own interests. Its uses are yet to be fully unlocked, as the major key investors are large

Virtuix Omni compatible with the Oculus Rift

video game companies, such as Valve and Epic Games. Even so, there is promise for more worldly and practical use of this device.

Video Games:

Popular games such as Half Life: Source, Half Life 2, and Team Fortress 2 are already available for the Oculus Rift. Many more games are already confirmed or in the works. Minecraft has a mod available for the Oculus Rift and an official version of the game has been announced and in the works. There is also a development community RiftEnabled which creates and modifies games to work with the Oculus Rift. RiftEnabled is one of many communities that have sprung up to create and distribute games in this way. Genres for the Oculus Rift are already expanding - from adventure, to simulations, to horror games, and more, it is becoming a sensation in the gaming industry. Powerful backers have planned upgrades to their games, and even more is to come from independent developers. OculusVR currently has support within their engine for the Unreal Engine 4, UNITY Engine, and Unreal Development Kit. It even has support for Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux. Video game developers have yet to use it to its full potential, but the current state is booming.

Oculus_Rift